The Donar basketball players have had a good start to the new year. In a ‘battle of the gods’, the Groningen people made mincemeat of Apollo Amsterdam in their own MartiniPlaza. After four quarters the difference was more than 40 points.
Many people start the new year with good intentions: lose some weight, exercise more, that work. More sports will not immediately be the good intention of the players of Donar, after all, they are (almost) daily in the sports hall. But better sports than in 2022 will be on the wish list of the players. The Groningen basketball pride had a turbulent year. Okay, it won the cup for the seventh time in history, but in the league it went dramatically at times.
As a result, Donar is only sixth now that it is restarting the competition after a short winter break. Placement for the Elite Gold of the BNXT League is hanging by a thread. If Donar wants to compete with the best teams from Belgium and the Netherlands in the championship pool, it has to rise one place in the ranking in the remaining six games.
Little margin on the ranking
But there is hope. The good intention ‘better sports’ is not a pipe dream. In the last games of 2022, coach Andrej Stimac’s team showed improvement. Den Helder was put aside with great numbers, Donar showed character against direct competitor Landstede Hammers and for the cup the Groningen team lost the first leg (three points) of eternal rival Heroes Den Bosch. Moreover, it is all very close together in the rankings.
The first of – watch out: here comes the biggest sports cliché ever – six finals to qualify for the Elite Gold, Donar played on Saturday evening in MartiniPlaza against Apollo Amsterdam. The improvement that Donar showed recently went hand in hand with the arrival of the new point guard Andrej Magdevski. A real passer, who above all lets others play better. That was especially true for Clay Mounce in the first quarter. The American was good for the first 10 of the 14 Donar points. After the first quarter, the Groningen team led 27-15.
‘Nice boys!’
In the second quarter, Donar rumbled on and the difference with the team from Amsterdam was soon 20 points. The Germanic God was clearly stronger than the Greek. That was especially evident from behind the three-point line, with a shooting percentage of no less than 72 percent (8 scores from 11 attempts) at halftime. Donar also did well rebounding with 21 rebounds versus 10 for the team from Amsterdam – only Viktor Gaddefors had almost as many with his 7. In short, even without Leon Williams, who was struck down by the flu, things went smoothly. Sometimes there was even time for some gallery play. After the break, little changed in the game image and Donar ran out to a monster score of 100-57. It seduced a spectator before the break to words that were rarely heard in Plaza in the first part of the season: ,,Nice guys, what’s all this about?!”
Well, mister spectator, perhaps a prelude to the Donar everyone wants to see: competing for the title. Whether that will really be the case, will have to be seen especially against the stronger teams. And first get that Elite Gold, of course.
Competition information
Quarter positions: 27-15, 28-13, 20-16, 25-13.
Donar Scores: Mounce 21, Hollanders 19, Taylor 12, Zakis 12, Schaftenaar 11, Zuidema 8, Brandwijk 8, Magdevski 7, Gaddefors 2.
Top scorers Apollo Amsterdam: Vianen 10, Bah 8, Wip 7.
Spectators: 3300.
Next game: Thursday January 12, 7.30 pm against Donar-Heroes Den Bosch (cup).